Rob Shaw: One year in, the winners and also-rans in the Horgan cabinet

Premier John Horgan and Lieutenant-Governor Judith Guichon look on as the Lax Keen Traditional Tsimshian Dancers before being sworn-in as Premier during a ceremony with his provincial cabinet at Government House in Victoria, B.C., on Tuesday, July 18, 2017. CHAD HIPOLITO / THE CANADIAN PRESS

VICTORIA — The skills and weaknesses of his Premier John Horgan’s cabinet are coming into sharper focus now that we’ve passed the first anniversary of the NDP assuming power.

Some ministers have been the driving force behind what’s been a pretty good 13 months for the New Democrats. Most of the party’s election mandate has been accomplished in a short period of time. But not everyone in cabinet has proved their worth.

THE PRIME-TIME PLAYERS

John Horgan, premier: The biggest success story so far. He continues to excel in his well-documented path from hot-tempered opposition critic to calm leader. No one articulates his government’s position or defends its policies better than he does.

David Eby, attorney general: Cabinet’s shining young star. Eby has aggressively tackled government’s biggest problems — the near-insolvency of the Insurance Corp. of B.C., a ban on corporate and union political donations, a money-laundering crisis in B.C.’s casinos. He’s now the go-to fixer for tough issues, as well as chief prosecutor in the NDP’s campaign to discredit the previous Liberal government. His referendum rules for proportional representation have been slanted — but other than that, Eby has had a dominant first year.

Adrian Dix, health minister, and Mike Farnworth, solicitor general: As solid as you’d expect from two MLAs with a combined 36 years in office. Farnworth’s cabinet experience from the 1990s NDP government makes him a stabilizing force for the current crop of rookies. He’s also been on top of marijuana legalization developments. Dix has run flat-out on his ambitious plans to build new hospitals, to reduce drug prices and to restore independent pharmaceutical testing. His encyclopedic knowledge of health issues is such that the Opposition Liberals don’t even bother challenging him.

Michelle Mungall, energy minister, and Doug Donaldson, forests minister: Horgan’s eyes and ears for B.C.’s Interior and North, both are key voices in an otherwise urban-heavy cabinet. Mungall had to reverse her opposition to the Site C dam on Horgan’s orders, but is now dutifully trying to keep the megaproject on time and budget. She failed to freeze Hydro rates, but may find worthwhile reforms in her review of Hydro’s operations. Donaldson had a steep learning curve in charge of the challenging 2017 forest fire season, but he’s proved a capable administrator. He’s quietly changing B.C.’s forestry policies, without triggering any major alarms.

Carole James, finance minister: Her star has dulled slightly after a bruising first year. James had to backtrack on two of her biggest new tax measures by shrinking the scope of her speculation tax and exempting charities from her employer health tax. She said that was always part of the plan. But in the process she’s had to contradict herself several times — for example, initially claiming British Columbians with second homes wouldn’t pay the speculation tax, only to admit later that almost two-thirds of those hit would be British Columbians. Her expanded school tax on homes worth more than $3 million has led to comparisons to the kind of class warfare the NDP abandoned in the early 1990s. It’s still unclear if these are all her ideas, bad advice from left-leaning economists, or directions from the premier. On the positive side, James is skilfully locking up public sector unions to new contracts with only modest wage increases. Overall, she’s kept the budget balanced despite intense pressure to spend big on years of pent-up promises. James is still the most widely-respected member of Horgan’s cabinet. But there’s no doubt in year one she burned off a large amount of political capital.

Social Development Minister Shane Simpson at Stamps Place, a series of family and low-income housing buildings in Vancouver. Simpson is the province’s first poverty reduction minister, and lived at the project now called Stamps Place as a child growing up in poverty.Jason Payne /
PNG

THE SOON-TO-BE-TESTED

Shane Simpson, social development minister: He’ll table a long-promised poverty reduction plan later this year. Social agencies that support the NDP expect a groundbreaking plan, but there’s also not a lot of money in the budget.

Rob Fleming, education minister: Has the daunting task of delivering on the NDP’s election promise to eliminate portables at Surrey schools. So far, portable use has increased. Fleming must also persuade teachers to accept the same contract as the rest of the public sector, when they’ll want something much richer from their NDP friends.

George Heyman, environment minister: The fate of the NDP government rests on whether Heyman can deliver a climate plan this fall that achieves B.C’s pollution reduction targets, while also accounts for the extra pollution from a proposed LNG Canada facility in Kitimat that the NDP supports. If Heyman fails, B.C. Green leader Andrew Weaver has said he might trigger an election. So, no pressure.

Katrine Conroy, children’s minister: Has yet to face the complex political and emotional turmoil that occurs when a child dies in government care and her ministry is blamed. How she responds will be telling.

Scott Fraser, Indigenous relations minister : Responsible for the complicated cross-ministry issues related to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Fraser will have to step up to be a leader in cabinet as government wrestles with First Nations’ opposition to Site C, fish farms and pipelines.

UNDER THE RADAR

Judy Darcy, mental health and addictions minister: Led the government’s response to the overdose crisis, with some success. But the larger mental health system remains a mess. Reforms, including better services for kids, have been slow in coming.

Selina Robinson, municipal affairs, housing and TransLink Minister: Has made numerous modular and subsidized housing project announcements, but it will take time to gauge their impact. In the meantime, rental vacancies remain low, sales prices high, rents are climbing and homelessness is growing. Nonetheless, her efforts to boost renters’ rights and close tenancy loopholes have been welcome.

Lisa Beare, tourism minister: Announced B.C. was pulling out of the bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup of soccer, but has otherwise been largely invisible.

Melanie Mark, advanced education minister: Has already quietly accomplished much of her mandate, including restoring free adult basic education and ESL programs and expanding tuition fee waivers for children in care.

Bruce Ralston, jobs, trade and technology minister: Got the new government sued due to his clumsy firing of the Buy B.C. LNG advocate, Gordon Wilson. Since then, placated the Greens by creating an Innovation Commission and Emerging Economy Task Force. Presumably Ralston has some sort of plan to encourage new high-tech jobs, because he’s often pictured at tech conferences. But we haven’t see it yet.

Claire Trevena, B.C.’s Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, speaks at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in Vancouver on Thursday. Dan Hara released his technical report on modernizing the taxi industry.Arlen Redekop /
Postmedia News

STRUGGLING

Claire Trevena, transportation minister: Her stalling on ride-hailing has resulted in two blown deadlines and is one of the NDP’s greatest failings so far. Trevena appears to be playing for time until someone has a eureka moment and shouts out a plan that simultaneously green-lights ride-hailing, saves NDP votes in Surrey and protects the traditional taxi industry from change. To be fair, she’s likely micromanaged by Horgan’s chief of staff, Geoff Meggs, whose support for the taxi lobby while on Vancouver city council was well-documented. Trevena is also stalling on finding a replacement for the George Massey tunnel, leaving in place the worst traffic bottleneck in the province.

Jinny Sims, citizens’ services minister: Embarrassed the new government this year when she was caught breaking the very freedom of information laws she’s supposed be safeguard, by using her personal email to do government business. Sims has since become the lightning rod for a records management controversy that has proven the NDP is just as sloppy, mischievous and cunning as the Liberals were in mass-deleting emails to make sure the public never sees them. As the minister in charge of all these missing files, Sims’ answers to simple questions has revealed a frightening lack of knowledge about her portfolio.

Lana Popham, agriculture minister: No politician has struggled more to transition from activist opposition critic to cabinet minister. Popham’s initial handling of coastal fish farms was a disaster, including when she backed her activist friends to threaten fish farm companies and questioned the integrity of the fish scientists in her own ministry’s lab (a resulting investigation determined none of her concerns were valid). Her much-awaited fish farm policy simply punted a decision to 2022 — after the next election. Clearly she’s a vocal advocate for the farming and agriculture sectors. But on big looming issues, like promised revisions to the agricultural land reserve, she’ll need to show better objectivity and judgment than she’s displayed during her first 13 months in cabinet.

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